SimCity: BuildIt

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SimCity: BuildIt
SimCity BuildIt.png
Developer(s) TrackTwenty
Publisher(s) Electronic Arts
Series SimCity
Platform(s)
ReleaseAndroid
  • CAN: October 22, 2014
  • WW: December 16, 2014
iOS
  • CAN/AUS/NZL: October 24, 2014
  • WW: December 16, 2014
Genre(s) City-building
Mode(s) Single-player

SimCity: BuildIt is a city-building mobile game. Developed by TrackTwenty and published by Electronic Arts, it was launched in late 2014. The game is part of the SimCity franchise, [1] and is available to download from the Google Play Store, [2] Amazon Appstore [3] and the Apple App Store.

Contents

This game allows players to solve real-life situations like fire, sewage, pollution and traffic, and helps in dealing with problems that the public faces. Players can connect and compete with other users for more connected gameplay. [4]

Gameplay

The game is freemium (free-to-play with pop-up advertisements and in-game purchases). It utilizes music and graphics similar to the 2013 SimCity game, although it is slightly downscaled in order to fit in with iOS and Android devices' graphic capabilities. The game starts with 25,000 simoleons (standard in-game currency) and 50 SimCash (premium currency) on hand.

Players play as the mayor of their city and make choices in order to keep their sims happy. When they do this, players can earn taxes from the City Hall. The more people in the city, and the happier the people, the more taxes are earned.

Players can trade, friend, chat, and join clubs with others players for connected online gameplay.

There is no zoning feature in SimCity: BuildIt. Instead, buildings are moved manually. Commercial and industrial buildings produce items, and residential zones require them in order to upgrade to a higher density. Factories can also be upgraded, although this requires demolishing the original building when it is not producing anything, then replacing it with a new one.

Players can only build two-lane roads using the build tool. Players cannot manually build higher-capacity roads; they must upgrade them instead.

Development

The game started development after the release of SimCity (2013) in an effort to develop a game more quickly and at a much higher profit margin. BuildIt uses many assets from SimCity (2013). [5]

Reception

As of October 2021, the application has been downloaded over 100 million times on the Google Play Store. [11] It ranks number four all-time in simulation games downloads operating on Android.[ citation needed ]

In 2018, according to EA Mobile, SimCity: BuildIt became the most-played SimCity game ever. It stayed in the top 10 in U.S. sim and strategy games on iOS platforms, in the top 100 for U.S. games overall and in the top 150 games globally. [12]

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References

  1. "SimCity BuildIt – Free Mobile Game – EA Official Site – Electronic Arts EA.com › games › simcity-buildit". ea.com. January 13, 2017.
  2. "SimCity BuildIt – Apps on Google Play". play.google.com. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  3. "SimCity BuildIt:Amazon.co.uk:Appstore for Android". www.amazon.co.uk. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
  4. ARTS, ELECTRONIC (January 22, 2018), SimCity BuildIt, ELECTRONIC ARTS, retrieved February 11, 2018
  5. Bains, Callum (March 7, 2023). "SimCity launched a decade ago, and it was so disastrous it killed the series". PC Gamer . Future plc . Retrieved March 12, 2023.
  6. "SimCity BuildIt for iPhone/iPad Reviews". Metacritic . CBS Interactive . Retrieved December 15, 2014.
  7. "SimCity BuildIt – IGN". IGN.com. November 25, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2017.
  8. "SimCity BuildIt review – iPhone reviews Pocket Gamer". pocketgamer.co.uk. December 18, 2014.
  9. Ford, Eric (December 23, 2014). "'SimCity BuildIt' Review – Actual City Planning Has Timers Too". TouchArcade . Retrieved October 5, 2018.
  10. "SimCity BuildIt (for iPad) Review". PCMAG. September 5, 2017. Retrieved July 16, 2021.
  11. "SimCity BuildIt – Apps on Google Play".
  12. "SimCity BuildIt – The Best Construction Game". August 15, 2019. Archived from the original on August 20, 2019. Retrieved August 20, 2019.